Kentucky is the only whiskey region on earth where this map can be drawn. Not because Kentucky counts better. Because it taxes barrels while they age, and publishes what it finds, county by county.
Every distiller in Kentucky files its aging inventory with the Department of Revenue each January. The state assesses it for local property tax and publishes the certified value, county by county, in a spreadsheet anyone can download. Scotland does not do this. Ireland does not. Japan does not. The 60.4 million casks in our global inventory are built from national aggregates and producer disclosures. Kentucky is the one place where the number comes up from the ground.
What the filings show at 1 January 2025: Nelson County, home of Bardstown, holds $1.62bn of aging spirit. It was $354m in 2010. Ten counties hold 93% of the state’s stock; the other 29 share the rest. The total on the books is $5.32bn, up from $1.50bn in 2016.
And the tax that makes this map possible is going. House Bill 5 (2023) phases the aging-spirits property tax out from 2026 to 2042, gone from 2043. When the tax goes, the filings may go with it. This map may have a shelf life.
Assessed value of distilled spirits in bonded warehouses, tax year 2025 (inventory at 1 January 2025), in US$ millions. 2016 is the first year the Department of Revenue published a state total.
| # | County | 2025 $m | Share | 2016 $m | Since 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nelson | 1,620.6 | 30.5% | 489.7 | ×3.3 |
| 2 | Franklin | 798.0 | 15.0% | 148.2 | ×5.4 |
| 3 | Bullitt | 666.7 | 12.5% | 230.6 | ×2.9 |
| 4 | Marion | 485.1 | 9.1% | 106.2 | ×4.6 |
| 5 | Jefferson | 387.0 | 7.3% | 291.1 | ×1.3 |
| 6 | Woodford | 306.9 | 5.8% | 50.5 | ×6.1 |
| 7 | Anderson | 297.0 | 5.6% | 116.1 | ×2.6 |
| 8 | Shelby | 137.8 | 2.6% | — | new since 2016 |
| 9 | Ohio | 119.1 | 2.2% | — | new since 2016 |
| 10 | Daviess | 115.8 | 2.2% | 31.2 | ×3.7 |
| 11 | Boyle | 110.5 | 2.1% | 0.0 | ×2340.9 |
| 12 | Henry | 80.1 | 1.5% | — | new since 2016 |
| 13 | Grant | 71.1 | 1.3% | — | new since 2016 |
| 14 | Jessamine | 43.3 | 0.8% | 35.8 | ×1.2 |
| 15 | Washington | 25.4 | 0.5% | — | new since 2016 |
| 16 | Oldham | 17.4 | 0.3% | 0.1 | ×214.5 |
| 17 | Campbell | 12.3 | 0.2% | 0.1 | ×95.5 |
| 18 | Garrard | 6.6 | 0.1% | — | new since 2016 |
| 19 | Warren | 5.9 | 0.1% | 0.4 | ×13.7 |
| 20 | Hancock | 4.2 | 0.1% | — | new since 2016 |
| 21 | Fulton | 3.3 | 0.1% | — | new since 2016 |
| 22 | Boone | 1.1 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 23 | Hardin | 1.0 | 0.0% | 0.0 | ×10192.6 |
| 24 | Christian | 0.8 | 0.0% | 0.0 | ×30.6 |
| 25 | Hickman | 0.7 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 26 | Gallatin | 0.5 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 27 | Muhlenberg | 0.5 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 28 | Fayette | 0.4 | 0.0% | 0.1 | ×2.9 |
| 29 | Mason | 0.2 | 0.0% | 0.0 | ×10.5 |
| 30 | Bourbon | 0.1 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 31 | Kenton | 0.1 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 32 | Lyon | 0.1 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 33 | Mccracken | 0.1 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 34 | Bracken | 0.0 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 35 | Letcher | 0.0 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 36 | Knox | 0.0 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 37 | Grayson | 0.0 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| 38 | Simpson | 0.0 | 0.0% | 0.0 | ×3.6 |
| 39 | Cumberland | 0.0 | 0.0% | — | new since 2016 |
| Kentucky | 5,319.7 | 100% | 1,500.2 | ×3.5 |
The same house rules as the global inventory apply. The Kentucky series is the best sub-national whiskey inventory data anywhere, and it still needs handling with care.
Kentucky will be the one country on it drawn at county level. Also in the series: the Global Aging Inventory, first edition, August 2026.
If you hold better data, we would rather publish your number than our estimate.
Write to hello@stillbound.ai with the figure and its basis. Corrections are logged and dated.